Background/Aims: Rehabilitation after stroke aims to prepare survivors for discharge home. Safe discharge home includes being able to sit, transfer and walk. Therefore, physiotherapy in rehabilitation is based on the practice of these essential everyday activities. A common everyday activity practised in rehabilitation is standing up from a chair. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the chair, bed and toilet heights in the home environment to inform rehabilitation clinicians and consider how they can better prepare stroke survivors for discharge home from rehabilitation.
Methods: Analysis of secondary outcomes from a multi-centre, phase III randomised trial (HOME trial) and additional observation of hospital environments. Chair, bed and toilet heights were measured in the homes of two hundred first-time stroke survivors and within six rehabilitation hospitals (ward and gyms).
Results: We measured 936 chairs and beds in hospital (17%) and home (83%) environments. Mean chair height at home was 47 cm (SD 6), which was 2 cm (95% CI 0 to 4) lower than in the hospital ward and 5 cm (95% CI 3 to 7) lower than in the hospital gym. Mean toilet height at home was 42 cm (SD 3), which was 3 cm (95% CI 2 to 4) lower than in the hospital.
Conclusions: Study findings suggest a disparity in heights between hospitals and homes. While clinicians may be aware of this disparity, they need to ensure that chair and bed heights within the hospitals are progressively lowered to better prepare stroke survivors for discharge home.